Fin de Siecle Media FDS14
Recently we already reviewed another album from Contrastate, being the debut LP "Seven Hands Seek Nine Fingers". At the same moment Fin de Siecle Media released also this album and hopefully they will continue to release long sought after items, because I have become an admirer of their works.
This retrospective contains thirteen tracks recorded between 1989-1999 and among the many rare pieces is the last ever Contrastate recording, written for the album they were working on when they decided end their collaboration back in 2000.
It's always hard to come up with compilations. People connected to labels know the limitations of the medium CD (time), the search towards "which tracks", "which order" and with 'various artists' also "which projects". Fin de Siecle Media did definitly a great job on this one. All factors one would emphasize with an overview of Contrastate came out really nice; The experimentalism, the humour, the variation, the sound, the complexity and the originality.
Because it is a collection of either unreleased or rare material, it's hard to describe the coherence. The shortest track is called 'Poodles in practice dress at the Battersea dogs' opera' and measures just over 30 seconds. The longest track is the epic almost 10 minute 'Circumcised by a blind rabbi'. Both are veryvery tasty; The first one in its decisiveness, the last one in all of its beauty and droniness.
None of the tracks resembles any of the others. Some are made from material recorded in jams or studio sessions, others are collections of found footage. Some are spoken word, others are soundscapes. Some are just deep sounds, and others are as danceable as the Lord of the Dance (capital D).
To recap the before mentioned, without going deeper in to what is actually on the album (seriously, you gotta give this band a chance if you like experimentalism and bands like Coil, T.G. & Psychic TV) every track is worth buying the album.
So ... Is there a question that remains?
Yes. Definitly.
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